


What's in a name?

by GreenQueenofClubs



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Finn is amazing and perfect, M/M, Poe is an idiot, Rey is a smart-ass, bb-8 is Poes sister
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-02-11
Packaged: 2018-05-19 15:25:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5971878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenQueenofClubs/pseuds/GreenQueenofClubs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some people have functional skills and actually ask their crushes out and have relationships.</p>
<p>Poe knows that. He's seen it happen.<br/>Poe is not one of those people.</p>
<p>Poe would actually settle for knowing his crush's name at this point.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What's in a name?

**_He_ was the bane of Poe’s existence.**

Poe could feel BB judge him from where she was doing her homework.

“You’re being dramatic again.” She said, matter-of-factly, scrunching her face as she scribbled something.

To be honest, Poe had reached the point in his life where being judged by his eight years old sister was the least of his problems, as sad as that was.

Which brought him back to the matter at hand.

_Him._

The gorgeous boy with the beautiful dark skin and the dancing eyes.

The angel with the smile that could melt the snow in the deepest of winter and the laugh that made flowers bloom everywhere he walked.

The nicest and sweetest and smartest guy Poe had ever met.

_Him._

 

He was perfect and sugar and spice and everything nice. Poe couldn’t stop thinking about him, couldn’t stop _dreaming_ about him.

 

Now if only Poe knew his name.

 

Then everything would be _kriffing_ dandy.

 

Poe groaned again, draping an arm over his eyes. This was pathetic. He was pathetic. Seriously, who does that? Who doesn’t know the name of the person they were heads over heels for?

Poe Dameron, apparently.

 

It wasn’t as if this was some kind of weird crush where Poe would be creepily stalking some cute stranger in a café, without ever actually talking to the other guy. He wasn’t that bad of a loser just yet.

Nope, he talked to the guy every _kriffing_ day. They hung out all the time. They had the same friends. They went to the same school!

 

And yet Poe didn’t know his name.

For the sake of simplicity, for this tale –and in his own head but no one could ever know about that under pain of Death- Poe would call him _Angel._

 

In his defense, Poe had been pretty distracted the day he had met Angel. BB had been sick all night, and their parents had taken her to the hospital first thing in the morning. Poe couldn’t think of anything all day, and in his daze, had slammed into a poor soul in the middle of the highway, almost knocking the both of them down.

Cue awkward babbling and handshakes and hurried welcomes and Poe kind of spaced out at some point in the conversation, because _hello stranger_ and _God_ sleep deprived Poe was a moron.

Presumably that was when they had traded their names. Probably.

 

Angel, bless his kind, wonderful, perfect heart, was actually worried about this weird guy he’d run into rather than creeped out by Poe’s vacant expression and dazed conversation.

He even asked him if he was okay. Three times. Poe didn’t want to know what he must have looked like for Angel to be so concerned.

Poe, in a moment of weakness, broke down and dumped all his frantic musings on the poor unsuspecting boy. Everything that had gone through his head about his beloved little sister, he told the other about.

What did Angel do? Did he act like any reasonable human being and desperately looked for any possible way to end the conversation and run away? Did he offer some trite and inane words of comfort with a bland pat on the back?

No, of course not. He tugged Poe in a warm, comforting hug, and kept holding him until Poe’s breathing stopped being so _kriffing_ shuddery. Then offered to drive him to the hospital after school.

Because apparently he really _was_ perfect and wanted to mess even further with Poe’s poor heart.

Poe had to turn down the ride in the end, albeit supremely reluctantly. He had his own car, after all. He hadn’t needed a ride, or implied it might be necessary, but Angel had offered and that made him ridiculously jittery.

In the end, BB was brought back from the hospital, diagnosed with a bad case of flu, but nothing worse. Poe spent his evening coddling her and resolutely trying not to think about the adorable boy.

He dreamed about him instead.

 

The day after, Poe had been determined to introduce himself properly to the cute boy. From the grapevine, he learned that the guy had just transferred to their school a few days earlier. He also learnt that no one knew what his name was.

Problem was, as soon as he saw Poe in the middle of the cafeteria, Angel had jogged to him, clapping Poe on the shoulder.

“Hey, man, are you okay? What happened with your sister?” His voice was like honey and Poe wanted to bathe in it. He also looked genuinely worried over this girl he’d never met and only knew of through this guy he’d met the day before.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. She only has the flu, it’s okay, she’ll be okay.” Poe felt stupid, admitting to the other boy that he had freaked out over the _sniffles_ , but he also felt compelled to reassure him and smooth the frown off his face.

“Good! That’s good! I’m glad she’s fine! You look a lot better too!” Angel answered with a wide smile that almost blinded Poe, squeezing his arm.

“Thanks, I mean, thank you. For yesterday, I mean.” Poe knew words. He knew he knew words. Why didn’t he know words NOW?

Angel didn’t seem to mind his sudden absence of vocabulary, and he kept smiling at Poe, shrugging casually.

“Not a problem, man, you looked like you needed a hug.” As if it was that easy. As if he would actually give a hug to anyone who looked like they were having a bad day.

At that point, it wouldn’t have surprised Poe if he were honest.

“Hey, buddy, do you want to sit with us?” Poe asked, a genius idea flashing through his mind. If he brought Angel to his table, he would introduce himself to his other friends, and Poe’s problems would be over.

“I’m actually waiting for Rey-” The boy worried at his lower lip with a quick look at Poe.

“Nonsense, she’ll come eat with us too!” Poe offered, not seeing the problem Finn seemed worried about.

Rey, Poe knew. Well, knew _about._ She had herself transferred to the school a few weeks ago, but had always kept to herself. Poe had a few classes with her, and was one of the few people that had had an actual, somewhat sustained conversation with her. He liked her well enough, she was certainly brilliant, and of course if someone managed to drag her out of her shell, it would be this lovely boy.

“Really? That sounds great, thanks!” Angel beamed at him, bouncing a bit on the ball of his feet, and Poe felt his heart stutter. He couldn’t help his own grin as he lead him to his usual table. He forced himself to rein it in before Pava showed up and got a good look at him.

She would never let him hear the end of it.

 

“Hey Trooper!” Jess and Temmin were already walking toward them when the two boys sat down, holding their own lunches.

“Hey guys! How are you doing?” Angel –and Trooper, apparently-- asked, giving them a goofy little wave. Jess answered in kind while Snap clapped his shoulder amicably. Poe stared at the three of them, dumbfounded, as they fell on the other bench.

Snap and Jess were his best friends, and he loved them to boot, but neither of them were social butterflies. They certainly never smiled and reacted like that to someone they’d met the day before.

They never gave anyone nicknames before they were willing to beat up someone for them either, and yet here was Angel, already dubbed Trooper. The man had to be some kind of wizard; that would be the only possible explanation.

Poe would be ecstatic his best friends like his- no, not his, get a grip Dameron- liked Angel so much. The only problem was, once _Testor_ and _Snap_ started calling someone by a nickname, they didn’t stop.

Ever.

There went Poe’s plan.

 

“I didn’t know you two had met?” Jess was smirking at him with that annoying ‘I know your type, Dameron, don’t lie to me’ smirk.

Poe was ready to take it, if it meant Jess would introduce them and tell him Angel’s na-

“Yes, Poe and I met yesterday!” Angel answered brightly. Poe felt disappointment wash through him.

“Did you?” Jess asked, and Poe wanted to crawl under the table, but he grinned at her.

“Yeah, I ran into the poor fellow yesterday. Literally. He was nice enough not to be angry.” His voice was resolutely casual, giving nothing away.

“It was nothing, really, everyone has bad days.” Finn brushed it off. Jess, on the other hand, rolled her eyes, punching his shoulder.

“Really, Dameron, get your head out of the clouds.” Her tone was dry, but Poe could see a touch of concern in her eyes.

“But then I wouldn’t get to meet such great people!” He smirked at her confidently, shrugging.

“Who’s great people?” Rey had showed up at last, standing behind Jess, face politely interested. Her eyes, on the other hand, were as sharp as ever as she took in the scene, stopping briefly on Angel’s face for reassurance.

Poe smiled invitingly at her, dropping a hand on Angel’s shoulder.

“He is!” He answered, squeezing the other boy’s upper arm. And tried not to get distracted at how impressively well-muscled it was.

 

He suddenly felt a brief flare of hope, because Rey didn’t seem like the kind of person to use nicknames. She would have to say Angel’s name at some point.

“Oh yeah, Peanuts’ amazing!” She grinned, dropping her tray beside Jess.

 

Would anyone be surprised to learn that Poe’s plan didn’t work? No? Yeah, he didn’t think so.

 

Rey used nicknames. All the time. Poe was almost certain she had figured him out and was doing it simply to mock him.

“Do you know where Peanuts is?”

“You’ll never believe what 87 just did.”

“Oh god, Sweetheart is so amazing, he helped me finish my history essay last night.”

“Hey You!”

“Settle down, Trooper, I can take care of myself, thank you very much.”

“Oh you noble land-mermaid.”

 

Anything, any time.

If you couldn’t figure out who Rey was talking to or about? It was Angel.

As for almost everything else amazing and endlessly frustrating in Poe’s life, it was always about Angel.

 

 

Now, four months into their friendship, Poe still didn’t know his name. He would call him Buddy, and Man, and Trooper, or even Peanuts when he felt he could tease the other boy without giving himself away.

He was doing a pretty good job, if he said so himself. Except from Rey, he was fairly sure no one knew how much of a complete imbecile he was.

Which was good.

One the other hand, he was almost ready to surrender to the eternal hell that would be admitting the whole thing to Jess, if it meant he could just _learn_ his _name._

Almost.

It wasn’t as if his ignorance was slowly eating away at his soul, or anything.

 

“Is this about the cute boy again?” BB asked. Poe jumped a bit, so busy wallowing in his misery he had forgotten about his little sister for a while.

Poe sighed, and pushed himself up to look at her.

“Maybe?” he offered.

“Is he your boyfriend yet?” BB dropped her pencil and bounced to him, demanding to sit on his lap. He complied readily enough, lifting her up.

“No, he’s not.” Poe shook his head, trying not to feel too sad about that.

The whole situation would be a lot less depressing if he didn’t have such a massive crush on the other boy, though.

Poe wanted nothing more than to take Angel out, eat at the best restaurant they could afford, go to the movie and not watching a minute of it, take long walks on the beach, etc. The whole nine yards.

“Why don’t you ask him?” BB asked, tearing him out of his daydreams with the authority only kids could have.

Poe snorted, shaking his head.

_‘Hey, I like you a lot, and I kinda swoon every time you smile and I want to listen to you talk forever. I want to take you out and be the cheesiest couple this town has ever seen with you. By the way, what’s your name?”_

Yeah. Poe wasn’t a romance expert by any stretch of the imagination but he was pretty sure that could end in nothing but abject rejection.

“It’s not that simple, BB.” He answered instead.

Problem was, he was pretty sure Angel would actually say yes if he ever asked him out. Poe wasn’t an idiot, the other boy was sending all the right signals. However there was no way he’d be able to fake not knowing his _boyfriend’s_ name.

 

Maybe he should just steal his wallet and check his license.

Weird and creepy? Definitely. Appropriate response to the situation? Poe was getting desperate enough to believe so.

“Why not?” BB seemed genuinely puzzled.

“Because I’m an idiot.” Understatement.

 

Thankfully he was saved from further prodding by his parents calling them to dinner.

At this point, Poe was pretty certain he’d never learn the name of the love of his life, but that was chill.

He wasn’t panicking at all. That would be overreacting.

 

“Hey Poe!”

Angel always made a point of finding Poe before the classes started. Poe dared to hope it was less because they were the only two of their friends that didn’t share a class –of course they didn’t, that would have made his life easier, one roll call and everything would be solved- than because the other boy might want to spend time with Poe as much as Poe did.

“Hey Buddy!” Poe threw right back, slinging an arm around Angel’s shoulder.

Play it cool, Dameron.

“Looking good this morning, stud.”

Nailed it.

Angel ducked his head, grinning goofily at the floor, but he leaned back against Poe.

Score! One point for Dameron.

“Thanks, Poe.” The boy’s voice was dopy, and he looked up at Poe through his lashes.

Poe found himself staring back, heartbeat quickening, as he heard his name fall so easily from Angel’s lips. What wouldn’t he do to do the same.

 

They jerked apart as the bell rang, calling them to their separate classes.

When Poe threw him one last look over his shoulder, Angel was still standing in the same spot, watching him walking away.

 

Maybe he could learn Angel’s name when they sent out their wedding invitations.

 

 

“Traitor!” A familiar voice shouted at them as they were walking to Poe’s house.

Of all the dozens of nicknames Poe had heard used for Angel and used himself, that was the only one he despised, the only one that called anger and protectiveness rather than mild irritation.

It was also the only one that led to Poe sitting in Angel’s kitchen, holding a bag of frozen peas to his cheek as the other boy flitted around and fretted over him.

Ever since they’d met, Kylo Ren somehow managed the feat of becoming more and more of a whiny asshole every time Poe had the misfortune of meeting him.

And that had been _before_ he learned of the way the pale boy would treat Angel. Like he was somehow beneath him, something to be despised and insulted.

 

When he called Angel –perfect, gorgeous, kind, smart Angel- a traitor, when he said it like it was _his name_ , Poe would see red.

 

He wasn’t that bad of a fighter, despite being several inches shorter than Kylo, and they had been separated fairly quickly, so he didn’t get that banged up. Angel had still insisted for Poe to come back to his house to make sure he was fine.

“I’m okay, Buddy.” Poe said for the twentieth time.

The boy spun around, grabbing Poe’s wrist to pull away the peas and look at his cheek. He hadn’t even bothered answering, and Poe was too distracted by the warm hand wrapped around his arm to really care that much about it.

“You shouldn’t have done that.” Angel said with a small voice, staring deliberately at Poe’s cheek to avoid his eyes.

“What, held the peas? You told me to do that.” Poe quipped, grinning at him.

Angel pursed his lips as his grip loosened around Poe’s wrist. Before Poe could mourn it, the boy’s hand slipped to his elbow, while the other settled on his shoulder.

“You shouldn’t have fought Ren. I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.” He sounded genuinely upset, and Poe frowned.

“I couldn’t just let him talk to you like that.” He grumbled, leaning forward. Angel shook his head, staring into Poe’s eyes with a soft willful expression.

“I don’t care what _he_ calls me, Poe.” The boy’s voice was so warm and soft, Poe felt it wrap itself around him like the world’s best blanket. His words slowly registered into Poe’s dumb head and he felt his heart expand three sizes, and he swallowed roughly.

 

“Anybody home?” The door of the house banged open and Poe jerked back, jumping to his feet. Rey popped in the kitchen, freezing in her track when she saw them.

“Poe. Puppy.” Puppy. Apparently Angel was Puppy this week. Of course he was.

Poe felt untethered, swaying in place, missing the heat of Angel’s hand, missing the intimacy of their eyes, missing the softness of his voice.

 

Why was this Poe’s life?

They stood in an awkward triangle for a few seconds before Poe relented, accepting he had irrevocably lost the moment.

Someone, somewhere, for some reason, hated him.

 

Sometimes, Poe wondered if he had dreamed up his Angel. Sometimes, he felt as if he knew him completely and yet had no idea _who_ he was. He felt as if he was chasing after him against running waters while his Angel flew away, always just so tantalisingly close yet unwilling to be grasped.

What if Poe had made him up, and couldn’t find a name perfect enough to fit him? What if he was sleeping?

 

How else would the entire universe be so set against him learning a name? A simple name?

 

 

 

 

The following morning, for the first time in weeks, Poe didn’t see Angel before classes. Neither was he in the cafeteria at lunch. Rey was missing as well, and their lunch table seemed oddly empty without them.

 

Had Poe upset his Angel somehow? Had he scared him away? Had he misread the signals? Was it all wishful thinking?

 

Had he really been dreaming, and had finally woken up? Was it all over?

 

The day seemed to stretch forever, but even as Poe pushed the doors of the school open, his worried thoughts still danced through his head.

Until-

 

Until he saw him.

His Angel, leaning against the side of Poe’s car, wearing _Poe’s jacket._

As if he had just stepped out of his dearest fantasies. Poe froze for a second before giving in.

Kriff this. Kriff all of this.

 

Poe stalked forward, crossing over the parking in a few steps, until he was crowding Angel against his car. Until their mouths were barely a breathe apart.

“I’m gonna kiss you now.” He should be embarrassed by how breathless he was.

He wasn’t. Frankly, he didn’t give a damn.

“Please do.” Angel answered, fervent and warm.

 

Kissing Angel was just as amazing as Poe thought it would be. His lips were soft and warm, his tongue clever and playful, and his arms strong and safe.

It was perfect, and Poe knew, as they broke apart, that he would do anything to keep doing it forever.

Maybe the whole clusterfuck wouldn’t be such a big deal. They were dating now, right? Pet names were allowed, no one would ever know! Angel wouldn’t hate him, everything would be fine.

Sweetheart? No, Rey called him that sometimes, it’d be weird.

Love? Not right away Dameron, you have to be cool.

Babe? Yeah, that sounded right. Poe was ready to bet Angel would like that.

It would all be all-

“Poe.” Angel didn’t sound upset, so Poe simply hummed happily, peppering small kisses on his cheeks and jaw.

“My name is Finn.”

 

 

Poe felt the planet grind to a stop around him.

 

His eyes popped wide open and he pulled back to stare at Angel, disbelieving. The other boy smiled fondly at him, pushing a lock of hair behind Poe’s ear.

“You knew?” Poe felt shame roll through him, and he tried to push himself away. He needed to go.

 

He needed to run. Anywhere.

He needed to hide, somewhere **Finn** would never find him and hate him.

 

Finn grabbed him, slipping his arm around his waist. He crushed their lips together, stealing Poe’s breath away.

 

He cupped Poe’s face with one big hand, pulling away just far enough to talk, their lips brushing ever so slightly.

“Yeah, I kind of noticed the guy I had the biggest crush on never said my name.”

 

Uh.

Poe should have known someone as smart as Angel would have figured him out.

“Finn.” He tried the name, tasting it.

Astonished, he felt Angel – _Finn-_ shiver helplessly against him. He grinned at the other boy, radiating pure delight and happiness.

“Don’t laugh, I’ve been thinking about you saying my name since we met.” Finn sounded embarrassed, ducking his head, and that was not acceptable.

Poe wouldn’t let Finn be embarrassed about wanting Poe just as much as Poe wanted him.

He wouldn’t let _Finn_ be embarrassed over the whole name thing, when Poe was the one to blame for all of it.

Poe brought a hand to Finn’s jaw, tilting his head back up, their lips were just barely brushing.

“ _Finn._ ”

_Finn_ shivered again. _Finn_ grabbed his hair. _Finn_ smashed their lips together. _Finn,_ Angel, Angel Finn kissed Poe within an inch of his life.

 

Finn.

 

Poe sighed into the kiss, pressing closer.

He couldn’t have chosen a better name for his Angel, even if he had tried.


End file.
